On Monday a human rights group charged Israel‘s army for violated codes of ethics and international law during the war in Gaza. Israel‘s attacking medics and refusing to allow the treatment of wounded, a human rights group said in report.
Human Rights warned” attacks on medical personnel, damage to medical facilities and indiscriminate attacks on civilians not involved in the fighting."
During the Israeli offensive fire killed 16 Palestinian medical personnel and wounded 25 others while eight hospitals and 26 primary care clinics were attacked, according to figures from the United Nations and the group.
The Human rights report said "Israel placed numerous obstacles in the course of the operation that impeded emergency medical evacuation of the sick and wounded and also caused families to be trapped for days without food, water and medications."
"The actions … violate directives of international law which forbid attacks on medical centres and medical teams during fighting" and "blatantly violated codes of ethics."
Dani Filc, the chairman of the Human Rights group Said,” We have noticed a stark decline in IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) morals concerning the Palestinian population of Gaza, which in reality amounts to a contempt for Palestinian lives."
"It is critical that the investigation of Operation Cast Lead is completed by a neutral, external investigator without ties to the IDF."
The army said that it was investigating the claims in a "thorough" manner and said its forces were instructed to "act with the utmost caution in order not to cause harm to medical vehicles and medical facilities."
The Human Rights said in a statement "Throughout the fighting, Hamas methodically made use of medical vehicles, facilities and uniforms in order to conceal and camouflage terrorist activity, and in general used ambulances to carry terror activists and weapons."
"Hamas used ambulances to ‘rescue’ terror activists from the battlefield and used hospitals and medical facilities as hiding places."
Such actions "greatly complicated the coordination of rescue and medical evacuation.
"It must be emphasised that under international law, the protections afforded to medical teams or ‘protected institutions’… cease to exist when these medical teams or institutions are not used for humanitarian purposes rather for carrying out actions intended to harm the State of Israel," the statement said.